I know your probably thinking, another Stone review means another high alcohol hop bomb, but in this instance you’re only half right. Stone Brewing recently added their tenth beer to their year round line up, Go To IPA, a sessionable IPA with a big flavor. For a refresher on what a session IPA is, check out my review of Pizza Port Ponto SIPA.

So aside from being another Stone IPA, this beer has some other interesting characteristics. The first is right the sheer amount of hops in this beer. There are NINE different hops in this beer: Mosaic, Citra, Ahtanum, Cascade, Crystal, El Dorado, Magnum, Sterling and 06300 (an experimental hop with high alpha acids and a woody, earthy flavor). The word on the street is that this is one of Stone’s hoppiest (as in quantity of hops) beers ever produced, only surpassed by Ruinten for hops per barrel of beer. The other interesting facet to this beer is the use of hop bursting to get all those hops into the beer. Despite what the name might make you think, this technique does not involve any crazy gadgets, instead it is a process of adding large quantities of mostly high beta acid hops late in the boil to maximize flavor and aroma while limiting the amount of bitterness in the beer. Stone Brewmaster Mitch Steele attests that “Hop bursting really helped us overcome the challenge of making a lower alcohol full-flavored brew that doesn’t taste thin or watery.” Continue reading →

The humble wheat beer doesn’t get a whole lot of love in the craft beer community. Sure, a wit will capture that fancy of beer nerds for a moment here or there and, on rarer occasions, maybe even a hefeweizen (all of which I’m going to blame on Shock Top). That being said there is definitely a market for them with those who are looking for less extreme hop and malt but still flavorful taste, which is evident from beers like Eagle Rock Manifesto and Hangar 24 Orange Wheat. So it was kind of surprising to hear that New Belgium was going to fill the vacant year-round production slot left by Mothership Wit, which was discontinued due to poor performance, with another wheat beer. But Snapshot isn’t your average wheat beer. Continue reading →

THE SESSION IPAS ARE COMING! If you haven’t heard yet, the session IPA is going to be a very popular style this year and to start off this onslaught I figured we’d start with a new contender in the LA beer scene, Pizza Port Brewing Company Ponto SIPA.

Let’s start with a quick primer on what exactly a session IPA is. A sessionable beer is one that falls below 5% ABV, features a balance between malt and hop characters, and has a clean finish. The purpose of these beers are to allow the drinker to enjoy several of them during a reasonable time period, or session, without blowing out the palate or getting too intoxicated. So a session IPA, or India session ale as some like to call them, would be an IPA that falls within those criteria. This turns out to be rather challenging, as Mitch Steele of Stone put it “The brewers challenge here is twofold: first is achieving a good flavor balance in a beer that is so low in alcohol that there isn’t much else to balance the hop character with, and second, ensuring that the dry hop character doesn’t become overly vegetal, due to the lower alcohol content of the beer.” Continue reading →

Sometimes I forget to post about some of my favorite beers because I’m too busy enjoying them. Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine is one of those beers. For those who may not be familiar with this brew, Old Guardian is Stone’s special release barleywine that comes out toward the beginning of every year. Every year they subtly tweak the recipe in small ways. This year the hop bill got switched up by replacing Magnum with Nugget as the bittering hop and Cascade for CTZ in the whirlpool. This beer has also been a part of the Odd Beers For Odd Years series, with Belgo and Oak Smoked variants having come out in the past.

While we’re on the topic of barleywines, let’s take a moment to examine what a barleywine is. barleywine, or barley wine (both are correct), is a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to beer styles. As the name might lead you to believe, malts play a big part in this style providing a wide range of malt profiles. Generally split into American and English barleywines, the main difference being that American barleywines have much more hops present in the aroma and flavor. Between the two versions, you can get beers that are straw color all the way to dark brown and ranging from 8% to 12% ABV with varying amounts of hop intensity. This style lends itself to aging very well, maturing similarly to wine. American brewers have also taken to barrel aging barleywines in a variety of spirit barrels as well. Continue reading →